The Herald-Zeitung

Two drive-by shootings in the same neighborhood? Shots fired outside a pawn shop leading to a foot chase and arrest? Two weeks ago, a pregnant woman was beaten and hospitalized?

A cursory look over New Braunfels police call reports for the past couple of weeks should give us all who live here some concerns.

We could easily point our fingers at the tourists, and they certainly add to the crime; but if the tourists went away today, New Braunfels would not instantly turn into the no-need-to-lock-your-car small town it once was.

Someone spray-painted the men’s restroom walls at a park. Car break-ins. House break-ins. Several driving-while-intoxicated arrests. A child was sexually assaulted. Domestic violence, including man who beat up his girlfriend. Several public intoxication arrests. A forgery attempt at a bank. A drug arrest.

And all those crimes and more were reported during two days in the past two weeks that I randomly decided to examine.

When one looks at the type of crimes reported during the July 4 holiday, they were for the most part the same, just more of them.

Assaults, public intoxication, car burglaries, cars vandalized seemingly for no reason with all the windows broken. Light fixtures under a bridge purposely destroyed. A person found passed out near Interstate 35 and Texas 46. An adult male punching a juvenile in the face. Criminal trespass. A customer threw a drink at a server at Wendy’s. Two brothers fighting each other near the bandstand (neither one wanted to press charges). A person apprehended for possible possession of heroin (“a brown substance in a syringe”). A recreational vehicle burglarized. Houses burglarized. A marine on leave had a bag of personal items stolen from a bench where he had been sitting. A suicide attempt. Car stolen from a parking lot near Schlitterbahn. Beer stolen from a convenience store. The list goes on.

And these crimes are just some of what was reported to city police of the holiday weekend.

On summer weekends, the emergency room at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa-New Braunfels is overflowing with injuries from accidents and more than just a few are victims of crimes.

The problem seems, though, that the non-tourism crime is catching up with the tourism-related crime.

Is this the “new normal” for New Braunfels?

Car burglaries have been a serious problem for years. Many who study such crimes contend that car burglaries, a quick way to steal and fence property for cash, are usually drug-related crimes.

Heroin? Drive-by shots fired?

Our city police officers are probably facing the worst crime and most crime our city has ever experienced. And so are we as citizens.

The days of not locking your car have been over for a long time.

But the number of the crimes and what appears to be the increase in violent crimes should concern us all.

Crime prevention is not just the responsibility of law enforcement. We must each take steps to limit our vulnerabilities that allow us to be easy victims.

Looking out for one’s neighbors has been a tradition in New Braunfels for generations. But these days, that responsibility seems more important than ever.